Sunday June 18, 1815.
It has rained all night around Mont Saint-Jean, a rise of land near the village of Waterloo, south of Brussels.
It's already getting dark.
Wellington's “redcoats” have resisted – since eleven o'clock in the morning – the furious attacks of Napoleon's infantry and cavalry.
They have resisted, yes – the corpses of thousands of French people bear witness to this, but they are one step away from succumbing.
And the worst is yet to come.
The British infantry can see, hear, how the veterans of the Old Guard prepare, at the foot of the mountain, to attack.
The advance will be decisive, the fate of the battle is at stake.
At 8:00 p.m., shouting “Avant la Garde”, the battalions of French Hunters begin to climb, with difficulty, the slope of the famous mount.
Fifteen minutes later, only a few isolated groups remain of what had been solid formations.
Decimated, the survivors are forced back; In doing so, they take with them the hope of victory, they take away the penultimate chapter of the Napoleonic epic, and they also take away the chances that the principles of the French Revolution will continue to be valid.
Europe, in just fifteen minutes - almost as if by magic - begins the path back to the monarchy and feudalism.
But the question we will ask ourselves is not historical.
The question that we will leave raised has to do with human behavior: what motive, what irresistible force, what spirit, impelled the French grenadiers to climb the slope of Mont Saint-Jean, knowing that they were entering a gigantic furnace from which Would it be very difficult to get out alive?
JULY 3, 1863.
In the surroundings of the town of Gettysburg – on the way to Washington – the armies of the Union and those of the Confederacy face each other.
It is the second day of combat.
It may be the decisive battle that puts an end to the Civil War, which has been going on for three long years. Longstreet receives the orders from General Lee that he will put into execution: 15,000 men, crossing the open field, must seize a small rise of land guarded by just over 5,000 soldiers from the North.
According to Lee, the maneuver is crucial to break the resistance in the center of the Yankee armies; Once this is done, the road to Washington will be cleared and with that, perhaps, the Union will sign the surrender.
The Confederates - beating the drums, waving the flags - begin to advance across the field, without any protection, against the positions of the northerners, solidly entrenched behind an extensive stone wall.
They are riddled; a few reach the wall.
They are killed, rejected or captured.
The attack fails.
Gettysburg remains in the hands of the North.
Lee backs off; the war will drag on for two more bloody years.
What invisible hand guided those 15,000 men from the South to face death, knowing what awaited them on that plain, almost like a proclaimed open-air grave?
SOUTH ATLANTIC, May 21, 1982.
The British have managed to position a large part of their “Task Force” in the San Carlos Strait.
They prepare the landing in the Malvinas, islands that – it is good to remember -, by Law, History and Geography, belong to the Argentine Republic.
Troop transport ships are protected by formidable defenses: radars, frigates, anti-aircraft guns, fighters, missiles.
The Argentine Air Force, however, decides to start the attacks.
The criollo pilots – “bravos among the braves” – know the challenges they will have to face: flying from the mainland to the strait at low altitude, almost over the waves, to avoid radars.
When they arrive, they must rise above the hills that surround the strait; then descend, drop their bombs on the targets – evading anti-aircraft shelling, missiles and British fighters –; ascend again and return to the continent, eluding pursuit.
All this, without losing sight of the needle that marks the plane's fuel level.
Many - they know - will not return.
However, they rush breakfast (probably a coffee with milk and croissants), and leave.
The rest we know for being recent history.
With heavy losses, the Argentines wrote an outstanding page in the Book of Glory.
What motivated these pilots?
The Homeland, courage, doctrine, sense of duty... what?
The grenadiers of the Old Guard heading to the oven on top of the mountain; the Confederates going to crash in front of a stone wall and Yankees; Argentine pilots flying into a cloud of shrapnel and missiles.
What encourages men in these extreme situations?
What inner force moves you to abstract from time, space, affections, roots and take the necessary step forward to move forward, despite knowing what awaits you?
The only possible explanation is the sense of honor.
Personal honor, of the Regiment, honor of the Homeland deposited – fractionally – in each of those men.
Honor: the flame of courage.
This is only possible when the people – and each one of its members – know that the cause is noble: it is then when they make it their own, inhale it and are willing to give their lives for it.
The grenadiers were, at that time, the whole of France; the Confederates – who believed in their cause – represented the entire South; the 1982 pilots were all of Argentina.
Faced with this human behavior, with language that includes concepts such as "courage", "principles", "dignity", "honor", the scale of values that today is proposed to us as "Global Village" does not have - nor will it ever have - an antidote. some.
Human beings, peoples, are capable of understanding and behaving for reasons that are far beyond any "chip"; Faced with this, the "One World" proposal, by not contemplating these other values, will inevitably end up crashing.
Maybe like the Confederates in front of the Gettysburg stone wall.
Lost the battle, Napoleon had to abdicate for the second time; this one, final
A short time later, his figure as the great builder of modern France began to be valued. And much of Europe too.
Lee, lost at Gettysburg, is revered today by all the American people. The partisanship passed; glory remained.
And our pilots?
Our sailors?
Our so-called "war boys"?
With respect to them, with respect to the Malvinas deed, we are on time.
It is not necessary to wait a hundred more years to pay homage to honor, courage, dignity, the sense of Homeland.
The parade that is pending in the Argentine Republic since 1982 we can – still – do it today.